What If It Were Me
By Heather LeughmyerAn Animal Rights Poem from All-Creatures.org

All of God's creatures have rights, a fact that most people don't seem to recognize.
This includes both human and non-human animals, but not all of them can speak for themselves.

What If It Were Me
By Heather Leughmyer

He’s just a baby yet he’ll never reach one
I could hide behind a smile
They travel without water in the scorching sun
Mile after mile
She’s fattened with babies that she’ll never know
I could go about my day
They’re denied any food because production is slow
It’s the American way.

He cries in the dark for a mother he needs
I could say he isn’t real
She’s dismembered alive when stunning doesn’t succeed
I could say she doesn’t feel
Chains hang heavy from his tender neck
I could say that I don’t care
She is desperate to move, they are desperate to peck
I could say that they aren’t there.

They are knee-deep in waste and writhe with disease
I could just close my eyes
To oozing sores and broken bones
To greed and corporate lies
They suffer in silence, their secrets well kept
I could just let it be
Instead I can’t stop thinking
What if it were me?

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